Addict
by Flannelkind
Summary: (Discontinued-or not...) Months after leaving Vault 111, Minerva has found herself surrounded by friends in her old home in Sanctuary Hills. Everything is going her way until her companion, Hancock, wishes to spend more time with the soft, joking, pre-war female. For a woman out of time, she's determined to make the most of it now.
1. Rain

Chapter one

Rain

_War never changes_

The dull patter of rain hitting the roof was enough to soothe my nerves as I sat in my home in sanctuary. The radioactive, almost acid based rain was rhythmic, falling every few days due to the mist of the ocean only a mile or so away. Concord stood in the distance, no gunshots rang out into the air from there.

As I sat in my bed, a blanket strewn around me and my pillow on the floor, I couldn't help but remember before the war. I used to enjoy rainy days, spending my time in the dewy air as small droplets would pool on my cheeks and in my hair, thoroughly soaking my clothes.

I can't do that now, unlike the other citizens of the Commonwealth I am not as adept to radiation. My pip-boy sat on my nightstand, softly illuminating the dim room I held myself in. Everything before the war was so calm and tame, nothing usually came out of the ordinary. Neighbours gossip and the only upsetting topic was if someone's husband was being unfaithful or if someone's child was allergic to their cookies.

I never liked it. This life is more suited for me. On the land, weapon in hand and being entirely self providing. It provoked a sense of fiery selflessness inside of me whenever I helped a settler in need or whenever I went around on pointless journeys alone or with one of my many new friends.

The sound of Dogmeat trotting down the hall was comforting, and approaching friend who wished no harm. Pawing around my bed and then hopping up, pushing himself into my lap as I laughed wholeheartedly. "Alright! Alright! Here ya' go big boy!" I scratched behind his ears and patted his head, speaking softly to the german shepard with a smile. "Aren't you a good boy?" He instantly perked up, bathing my face in slobbery dog kisses.

Groaning at the wet sensation and pulling my head away from the assault I couldn't help but laugh as well. "Dogmeat!" I cried and he only crawled further into my lap, licking my face again as I fell over onto my back. "No!"

Dogmeat barked playfully, licking and pawing at me. "PShh! Help! Dogmeat- Stop!" I called, pushing Dogmeat's face away and trying to roll over. Alas, tangled in my blanket I am trapped.

"Dogmeat!" The familiar voice of Danse called and Dogmeat jumped over me. Cracking my eyes open again, breathing heavily and looking to my door frame. There he was, adorning his new black crewneck and black jeans and combat boots. I sat up and thanked him to which he curtly nodded back, giving a small "Your welcome" and then leaving.

Sighing softly and looking to my pip-boy, checking the time with a neutral face. 10:27 am. Might as well finally get up, right?

Sitting at the guard post at the bridge with my hood up and my .50 caliber sniper rifle resting in my gloved hands. The olive green combat rain coat was something I found not all that long ago but has come incredibly handy. The old vault suit from vault 111 was no longer of use to me and now I wear normal, everyday clothes.

A grey, males tank top adorned my chest, black jeans and black, rubber rain boots. Up the road I could see the Red Rocket station where Sturges has placed dibs on building a 'summer home'. Chuckling at the thought of such a domestic thing in this apocalyptic world, drawing a smile onto my face and bringing the scope to my eyes again.

Nothing, no movement. This is good, boring, but good. There'll be no fighting today. As per usual I had my pip-boy set to radio freedom which was primarily quiet as well. The classical american themed music was enough to draw my attention from the downpour of the rain around me. "Fowler" I almost jumped, turning around and looking to Danse who was now climbing the stairs of the tower. "God damn, sneak up on every girl you come into contact with?" I sighed deeply, setting my rifle against the wall. "No, I- I'm sorry" he stood by me as he said that, He's still wearing his outfit from earlier but his shoulders and hair is soaked thoroughly. Heavy fabric clinging to his broad shoulders. I breathed softly out my nose, "It's okay, just- make yourself known, okay? I almost thought you were a raider or something." I chuckled softly, nodding slightly and then looking to my friend. "So what brings you to me this time, Danse?" I smiled and he looked bashfully away, his laser rifle in his hands and his eyes trained on the ground.

It wasn't unusual for Danse to be silent, but this- when asked by a superior- was a different type of quiet. "Danse?" I asked, contemplating whether or not to initiate contact. He's still rather touchy and moody about his departure from the brotherhood. I couldn't blame him though. It's all he ever knew, all he ever wanted. "It's my turn to keep watch" He muttered loudly, looking away from me and only training his dark eyes on his gun.

I hummed softly, looking to the two folding chairs resting at the base of the tower. "I don't think so, I've been put on watch all day, remember? Rainy days I'm watch at this post" I corrected him, still looking at the two fold up chairs and formulating a idea. He made a 'oh' sound and shifted, "well then- I suppose" He turned to leave and I put my hands out, ushering his to stop which he did. "Wait! Wait, wait- just- how bout you do watch with me, eh? I'm sure Preston wouldn't mind at all." I offered a toothy smile which he returned softly. "Alright, Sentinel" He spoke, looking down again and I went to fetch the chairs.

The small talk allowed us to drift through the hours and, before we knew it, it was seven ten. Standing and stretching, water dripping out of the folds of my rain coat and onto the ground in a spiral pattern. "We-ell" I yawned, stretching still and then stopping. "I'm off-" I smiled at him as he looked up to me from his chair and I turned to the steps, jumping down them and then looking back up to him. He's looking at me.

"You coming?" I asked, and his face fell somewhat. Eyebrows raised, eyes wide, and his mouth pulled apart slightly. It was brief but there, reminding me that he's not okay as he tries to say he is. His eyebrows knit together again and he resumes his normal expression.

The soft hum of voices and generators above the sound of the rumbling sky above was nothing unusual for Sanctuary Hills around this hour. Rain or snow, all year I'd suppose. It's only been six months since I have left the vault and I've made so many friends. Close and closer still.

Entering the bright lighting of _the colonel bar_, my ears being flooded by the sounds of settlers, caravan hands and odd balls getting along together in a drunken stupor. "Minnie!" Cait's slurred voice called as I passed Deacon who was telling an elaborate story to one of the caravan hands who couldn't believe it. Danse followed close behind and sat on the stool next to me at the counter.

Ordering a glass of Pinot Noir, bourbon and another beer for Cait who thanked me loudly. "Where ya been Minnie? Ditchin' us 'ow?" Cait's accent waved in my ears as she drunkenly slurred, finishing off her bottle as her new one slide to her. "Nah," I smiled, swirling my wine around in its glass and looking at the pink colored liquor, " I couldn't leave y'all not after all we've been through" I sipped off my glass and Hancock pulled up another stool. "That's great, general but listen 'ere" he started, sipping off of his own glass and then sighing "A ghoul walks into a bar- Bartender says 'we don't serve your kind here'" he smiled wickedly, "Ghoul says 'that's fine, is the human fresh?'" Cait snorted with us as we laughed.

"That's-" I giggled some more "That's clever Hancock but here's one" I cleared my throat, placing my glass on the counter, "What do you call a masturbating brahmin?" Hancock and Cait looked to each other quickly, confusion lacing their features and she spoke up "I dunno, wha?" I smiled widely watching Danse stare at me from the corner of my eye.

"Beef stroganoff" the collective groans and snickers of my friends was a great boost to my self esteem. "Are you serious?" Danse groaned, swallowing the amber colored liquid. "Why don't _you _try and joke around, Danse" Hancock laughed and he scoffed. "No, why would I do that?" He scowled softly, swishing this drink in its glass, the ice cubes hitting the sides with soft clinks that were almost unheard over the chatter. "For the 'ell of it, stiffy!" Cait smirked, "Oh come on Danse, it'll make you feel better" I offered a smile to which he sighed. "Alright- fine"

"What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?" He asked in a monotone voice, taking another sip off of his drink and we all exchanged looks. "What?" the ghoulish mayor asked, quirked an eyebrow upwards and Danse placed down his glass. "I don't know and I don't care" he spoke levely and we all looked to each other.

A second later Hancock and Cait started giggling, me following them in the small fit of laughter. A smile creeped onto Danse's face as we laughed and tried to re do the joke, not being able to keep a straight face. Giggles turned into soft gasps as our laughter died down, soft wheezing and light slaps against the counter. "God _damn_" Hancock wheezed, smiling widely at Danse who sat on his stool looking satisfied. "Didn't know you had it in you, brother" he joked, leaning over and lightly punching Danse on the arm.

The bright glow of the singular light bulb lamp that rested on my dresser was enough to allow me to navigate through my room. Pip-boy on the nightstand, coat hung up on the hanging coat rack pinned to the door, the arch top mirror that hung above the dresser reflecting my image in an opposite light. In the distance I could hear others entering their homes, doors shutting and brief, passing conversations of the road and drunken slurs of caravan hands entering the temporary homes that stand directly opposite of mine.

To think Sanctuary was a abandoned area only a matter of months ago was something to marvel at. Clean (for the sake of this land) and prosperous. Guarded and happy. Garvey says it was almost completely my doing but I don't think so. Hell, Mama Murphy did her share before I told her to stop and take her time and relax in a soft, comforting chair I dragged in from Lexington.

A knock sounded on my door and I told them to come in, turning to the frame as the door creaked open. "Hey," the familiar face of my ghoulish friend peeked through the door, "You got a minute?" his hat tipped upward and his face had an emotion I had come to recognize with time. "Yeah, of course." I motioned for him to come closer, which he did, shutting the door behind himself. His cloudy, black colored eyes casted downwards in a stare to the floor. He remains quiet, swallowing loudly and keeping his eyes off of me.

"Hancock?" He looks up quickly, eyes wide and his mouth threatening to fall agape. Taking a step closer to him, pulling him by his hands and bringing him to my bed and making him sit. Taking a seat next to him I breathed softly out a 'what's wrong?' while gripping his hand.


	2. Rads

Chapter 2

Rads

We sit and talk about things. Tomorrow and yesterday. He slouches, shoulders tensed in different ways as he sits cross-legged without his boots on my bed facing me. I allow him to talk about whatever he needs to talk about, from his past to his plans of the future. How Goodneighbours' doing to the expression of his need for a fight. He talks for a while, quiet at times when he'd think while glancing to the ground.

I made sure to breath softly, letting him talk about everything that he needs to get off of his chest. He's got a lot of thoughts, deep depressive thoughts and anxieties that he tries to cover up. He tells me they're getting worse but not directly.

"Listen Sister," he breathed, taking my hand in his again, squeezing softly, "I just- I need to take a walk, you know?" He offered a smile, the small, almost unnoticeable gap between his front teeth offering the youthful personality that he presented often.

Swallowing the wad of saliva in my mouth and gently squeezing his fingers I spoke a soft 'I know'. He continued though, thanking me for my hospitality and staying around him and letting him express his feelings. He stands, shuffling to the door. "John?" He turns around, his dark, murky eyes looking back and reflecting the soft lamp light "Yeah?" He's offering another small smile which makes my heart hurt in a dull pain. "Wait ten minutes, okay?" I smiled back at him, same feeling and he nodded and left my room.

1:43 am was what my pip-boy said as I walked by Hancock's side. The cool air and the chirps of crickets was ever present as I shivered, pulling my backpack further up my back and rolling my shoulders. The twinkling of starlight beyond the thinly veiled clouds that remained from the earlier storm was enough to illuminate our path. The wet, soaked ground underneath our boots squelched with each step we took, passing the Red Rocket station and into Concord. I kept my pip-boy light off, not willing to let us being caught off guard in the night.

Hancock would survey every few feet, knowing that I couldn't see as well as he could in the dark. The inky shadows were enough to make anyone fidgety, the inability to see was frightening but also exhilarating. An adrenaline high was catching up to me as I held my rifle in my hands tightly.

"You alright?" I jumped as Hancock spoke, "yeah." I breathed out, taking quick steps in order to meet his stride. The stutter of my footsteps and the sound of the night was making me anxious with anticipation, wishing for a fight.

Running my thumb on the side of the hardwood barrel of the rifle, feeling the groove that ran in a diagonally across and under my palm. '_I really have to fix that_' I thought, rolling my shoulders and continuing my stride next to my friend. The lights of Concord's streets were now our light, allowing me to notice Hancock's worried glance to me. "We can stop if you need to, ya'know?" He spoke, walking past a puddle that seeped across the cracked pavement and into the small crevices of the asphalt.

I swallowed hard, looking at him sideways as my backpack started to fall again. "I know, don't worry" I sighed, pulling up my pack and glancing up to the museum as we passed, lights dimming and the moon becoming out only guide once more. He made a noise in between a sigh and a laugh, amused by something about my behavior.

"So," I glanced down to my pip-boy, "where we heading?" I entered the 'map' tab, waiting for his response. A rumble of his chest with a soft laugh resonated in my ears, "Goodneighbour," he said, stopping for a moment and letting me play on my pip-boy, "I've gotta see how our little slice of paradise is doing and talk with Fahrenheit." I glanced up from my pip-boy to see him fiddling with his short-barreled shotgun, finger resting above the bend of the trigger. "Alright," I paused, "we've got a little over six hours so we'll get there around…" I clicked my tongue, thinking "... Eight or nine? Depending on delays, of course" "then what are we still doing here?" He breathed out, a smile on his face. "Let's get this freakshow on the road."

"Fuck-in-a asshole! A little help here?!" I yelled exasperatedly as the geiger counter on my pip-boy went off, on top of me laid a dead feral ghoul, bleeding all over me. Dropping his shotgun and pushing the heavy, irradiated body off of me and gripping my shoulders "Are you alright?" He asked, looking up and down at the new and old blood stains whilst my pip-boy continued to click rapidly.

A sudden wave of faintness rose through me as he held me and his voice grew distant in my ears. Ringing of the geiger counter even farther away then he is.

Raising her top lip and looking at her gums Hancock's expression dropped and morphed into one of fear. Blood was already pooling in her gums and her mouth is dry.

Pulling off her backpack from her shoulders and opening it and searching. After some digging around, pushing past her assault gas mask and various supplies and ammo cartridges (and a quick glance to her geiger counter which read at a dangerous level of radiation poisoning) he found the two drugs he was looking for. _Radaway _and _Rad-x_. He knows of the consequences for her to take both of them at the same time but he has no choice.

Pocketing the drugs and pulling her unconscious body away from the irradiated feral bodies and to a safer area inside of a building. It appeared to be some sort of shop but thoroughly destroyed and looted. Pulling off his belt that rested underneath the sash around his waist and tying it around the middle of her bicep and then tapping on the conjunction of the inside of her elbow.

A vein, blue in color underneath her skin popped out, showing its width proudly to him. The ghoul smiled, pulling out the iv bag of radaway out of his pocket and connecting a (sterile) needle to it and then pressing the needle carefully into her skin.

Blood pooled for a moment underneath her skin, a deep, red, blue and green quarter sized bruise formed as he pulled the iv above his head, letting it drain into her veins. Looking around the store, standing up and looking for something to hold the radaway while he prepared to give her her next medication.

Opening my eyes and feeling quite hungry and tired to see a wooden roof above me and seeing an empty bag of radaway hung on a partially fractured coat rack. Looking to my arm and finding a needle dislodged from it. Muttering a curse and sitting up, looking around for Hancock. My head is spinning, swirling in a deep tiredness as my throat seemed to dry up.

A hoarse croak of his name rose to my throat as I rolled to my side, trying to get up and failing spectacularly. Using the counter as a helper, pushing myself up and into a standing position as I looked around once more.

This was my favorite cornershop in Lexington, it was a candy store that sold authentic chocolates and taffy. The old machinery of the taffy pulls were in shreds on the floor, nothing more than spare parts for a scavenger. Rolling my tongue in an attempt to bring some liquid (if any) to my mouth, looking around with tired eyes for my pack and croaking again.

Surprise, surprise. It's nowhere in sight and apparently Hancock wasn't in an earshot either. 'If I were Hancock where would I be?' I looked around, the dry, old spit around the corners of my mouth making me slightly sensible as I shuffled forward, the weight of my fatigued body almost bringing me down with the first step.

A strangled curse escaped me as I bend over the counter.

_Hopeless_

The bitter taste of the word fluttered in my mind as I stood on trembling legs. The feeling clutching the numb expanse of my limbs and torso, clouding the feeling of the cool stone beneath my exposed arms. It felt unreal, swimming in my own mind as my head reeled with my mouth dry and sticky with old saliva.

I felt utterly _hopeless._

The heavy footfall of rugged cloth and leather boots against the hard, cracked asphalt echoed in the afternoon air. The sun rested above one of the old interstate highways but its light was ever present and blinding.

Squinted murky eyes looked around as scarred hands fiddled with a pair of sunglasses. "Fuck" he mumbled, flicking the glasses open and sliding them on his face. The instant ability to see was good as his eyes opened more under the filter of the glass. It wasn't much, but it was better than having a the migraine that was starting its slow bloom of rage behind his eyes. His high was crashing and his mood soured somewhat as he pulled open a large, green and brown painted door.

The brightness dissipated immensely as he looked around the old shop. The shambles of parts near the window looked odd. Something from before.

Hancock always liked pre-war relics. A bit of a "history-buff" as Charlie would call him whenever he'd sit down at the Third-rail. Something about the history and how much this country fluttered in the face of danger was a lot for anyone to take in. Most history books were destroyed in the fires that plagued the land after the bombs. Pre-war ghouls were the only piece of history that could relay it all.

Except for now. Cursing and almost flying across the room, helping his pre-war companion to stand. The uttered quiet mumbles of various curses as he guides her to sit down was gravely and low.

Now having her sit and crouching beside her with a worried look, "You alright?" He lightly flicked her forehead. She scoffed softly, trying to lick her lips again. "Water" she croaked and he jumped to his feet. "Oh shit!" He grabbed the dropped bags, picking through her bag once more and finding one of the cylinder containers. Its bold lettering against the white background of its container and he immediately turned, handing the water container to her as she cracked it open and greedily started to drink.

Her throat bobbed with each gulp and small dribbles rolled down her chin. Pulling the container away from her mouth once more, gasping as saliva flooded. Wiping away the dribble and thanking her ghoulish friend who only smiled.

His sunglasses were crooked against his face and his hat was tipped upwards, showing the expanse of his forehead. The rugged, worn skin moist with a thin sheen of sweat due to the rising heat index which he tried to wipe away with the red sleeve of his coat.

While he was sweating she felt fine. Ghoulification has perks like a longer life time and disadvantages such as not being able to control your body heat. Right now he was overheating from a little stroll in the sun.

He knew it was going to happen too. Three layers? What is this? Winter? "Hey" She cleared her throat, gaining his attention as she leaned over with a newly dampened piece of cloth in her hand. Instinctively leaning away from her only to fall onto his back, knees in the air but feet planted firmly on the ground. The soft sound of a hoarse laugh sounded from her as she crawled to his side and pulled off the glasses, softly dabbing the cool rag against his skin with a small smile resting against her pink lips. He now made no resistance to the chilly sensation as it dulled the heated feeling of his face even if the soft heat from the inside of his cheeks was noticeable.

Pulling the rag away from his face and looking satisfied, only to look to the windows of the building with a crooked and thoughtful face. He watched, she was intelligent and always thinking which lured him to her. She didn't even know it though, "Minnie?" He spoke, pulling his arms under his head and propping it up. She looked to him quickly, she alway was quick in her actions and he wondered if it was just who she is or is it something she picked up while being alert in the Commonwealth. "Yeah" her voice sounded drained and cracked.

"Let's stay here for the night, yeah?" A smile crossed his face as he proposed his plan, "Your hurt and it wouldn't make any sense to go out there with you like this, right?" she looked to the window again and then to her pip-boy, the familiar decision making expression that he had come to enjoy and love playing on her face as she tapped the screen of the portable computer.

"Fine" She breathed, shoulders sagging forward slightly and he smiled. They were going to be alright for the night and that gives him another opportunity.


End file.
